What goes wrong repeatedly.
BUYING BEFORE MEASURING
Equipment sized by guesswork, and money wasted.
BACKING UP EVERYTHING
Costs that could have been a fraction if circuits were separated.
OVERSIZING THE GENERATOR
Wasted fuel, poor efficiency, and engine damage from light running.
IGNORING STARTING SURGE
Systems that trip whenever a compressor starts.
RUNNING A GENERATOR INDOORS
Deaths, every year, entirely preventable.
CONNECTING A GENERATOR WITHOUT A TRANSFER SWITCH
Danger to line workers and to the premises.
NEGLECTING EARTHING
Every other protection rendered useless.
TREATING A STABILISER AS SURGE PROTECTION
Different problems, both unaddressed.
MIXING OLD AND NEW BATTERIES
The whole bank degraded to the weakest.
DEEP-DISCHARGING LEAD-ACID BATTERIES
A bank destroyed in months rather than years.
SKIPPING GENERATOR SERVICING
The commonest cause of failure, and it fails during an outage.
BUYING SOLAR ON OPTIMISTIC PROJECTIONS
Payback calculations that never materialise.
OMITTING BATTERY REPLACEMENT FROM THE SUMS
The largest recurring cost, left out of the decision.
NO RECORD OF OUTAGES
No evidence for billing disputes, and no basis for the next decision.
UNQUALIFIED ELECTRICAL WORK
Fires, shocks and voided insurance.
BUYING ON PRICE ALONE
Counterfeit equipment that fails early and cannot be claimed against.